Lawyer prohibited to meet Ershad

Lawyer prohibited to meet Ershad

DHAKA (Reuter): Bangladesh's Home (Interior) Ministry has
refused to allow one of former President Hossain Mohammad
Ershad's lawyers to see him in jail.

Ershad, deposed in a popular opposition-led revolt in December
1990, is serving a 23-year prison sentence for corruption and
keeping unlicensed firearms. He also faces charges of killing a
rebel army general 14 years ago.

Canadian lawyer Marcel Danis said yesterday the ministry had
turned down his request to see Ershad on the grounds that the Bar
Council restricted foreign lawyers from practicing in Bangladeshi
court.

He said that restriction should not apply to him merely
visiting his client in jail, however.

Danis, who came to Bangladesh at the request of a senior
leader of Ershad's Jatiya Party, said he had already applied to
the Bar Council for permission to see and defend the ex-president
on the charges he still faces and has denied -- killing Maj. Gen.
Abul Manzur following a 1981 mutiny.

Manzur was leader of 1981 mutiny in which former president
Ziaur Rahman, husband of current Prime Minister Begum Khaleda
Zia, was killed in Chittagong.